About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

37 Campbell L. Rev. 497 (2015)
What is a Life Worth in North Carolina: A Look at Wrongful-Death Awards

handle is hein.journals/camplr37 and id is 527 raw text is: What Is a Life Worth in North Carolina? A Look at Wrongful-Death Awards RALPH PEEPLES* CATHERINE T. HARRIS ABSTRACT This Article examines the amounts recovered in 123 wrongful-death cases filed in North Carolina over a five-year period. The dataset is unique in that it includes both jury verdicts and settlements. Although the injury- death-was the same in each of these cases, the amounts recovered varied greatly. Several patterns emerge from the data. First, there is a strong negative correlation between age and the amount recovered. Second, the manner in which the decedent died seems to make a difference. Violent deaths, for example, led to larger recoveries than did nonviolent deaths. Third, jury verdicts produced much larger recoveries than did settlements. Finally, the results underscore the critical role of insurance in wrongful- death cases. INTRODUCTION What is a life worth, expressed in dollars? To most people, this question might seem odd, for several reasons. One might ask why one life is worth more than another, or why and how the value of a life is to be expressed in dollars. Placing a dollar value on a human life might seem distasteful to some, if not repugnant. Even if this objection can be overcome, the second question remains: How can the value of a life be measured? What method is appropriate? For lawyers, however, these are routine and unsurprising questions. When lawyers deal with these questions, they add an indirect phrase to come up with answers: following the guidance of wrongful-death statutes, they ask, What is a life worth, expressed in dollars, to the deceased's survivors? The effect on the survivors is the focus of most wrongful-death statutes and litigation. * Ralph Peeples is a Professor of Law at Wake Forest University. ** Catherine T. Harris is a Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University. We thank Matthew Barnes for his excellent research assistance. We are grateful to attorney Robert M. Elliot for his many helpful comments and suggestions.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most